Netbook demand dropped 26% in Q1

But decline matched industry average

Demand for netbooks was indeed down in Q1 - as yesterday's Atom processor shipment figures suggested - but by the industry average, figures form market watcher DisplaySearch show.

According to the researcher, 5.9m netbooks were shipped worldwide in Q1, down 26 per cent from the 8m shipped in Q4 2008. In Q1, netbooks accounted for around a fifth of the total sales of portable PCs, some 30.3m units in all, including regular laptops.

All the named suppliers but Dell saw shipments fall sequentially - the PC giant's shipments were the same quarter on quarter. Lenovo and Asus experienced the biggest falls, with shipments down 50 per cent and 47 per cent, respectively, between Q4 and Q1.

DisplaySearch said 45 per cent of the netbooks that shipped in Q1 went into Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Some 26 per cent went into North America. ®